Saturday, June 11, 2016

Trump's Judicial Double Standard

Forcing judges to recuse themselves on racial grounds would leave only white judges with right to talk about race.

Let’s be clear: It is OK to criticize judges — to a certain extent. I do it from time to time as a journalist who covers the U.S. Supreme Court. But Donald Trump has crossed the line.

Justices and judges sometimes do boneheaded things, just like journalists and everyone else, and should be taken to task for doing so. Judges are public officials, and as such should have thick skins (which Trump seems to lack).

And in the case of federal judges, they have life tenure, which goes a long way toward softening the sting of criticism. Short of fomenting a move to impeach Judge Gonzalo Curiel, Trump can’t touch him.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, however, is in unfamiliar territory for an aspiring national leader. He is challenging a basic premise of the independent judiciary created by the Constitution — that duly appointed judges rise above their personal views and backgrounds to rule fairly, according to the facts and the law.